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gin to shoot, a little hollow is dug round each root, and is filled up 

 with guano, which is afterwards covered with a layer of earth. After 

 the lapse of twelve or fifteen hours the whole field is laid under 

 water, and is left in that state for some hours. Of the guano bianco 

 a less quantity suffices, and the field must be more speedily and 

 abundantly watered, otherwise the roots would be destroyed. The 

 efiect of this manure is incredibly rapid. In a few days the growth 

 of a plant is doubled. If the manure be repeated a second time, but 

 in smaller quantity, a rich harvest is certain. At least, the produce 

 will be threefold that which would have been obtained from the un- 

 manured soil. 



" The haciendas of the valley of Chancay have, during the last 

 fifty years, consumed annually from 33,000 to 36,000 bushels of 

 guano brought from the islands of Chancha and Pisco. The price of 

 the bushel of coloured guano is one dollar and a quarter, and the 

 price of the white from two to three dollars. The price has recently 

 undergone many fluctuations, in consequence of the great exports to 

 Europe. 



" The employment of this kind of manure is very ancient in Peru ; 

 and there is authentic evidence of its having been used in the time 

 of the Incas. The white guano was then chiefly found on the islands 

 opposite to Chincha ; so that for upwards of six hundred years the 

 deposit has been progressively removed from those islands without 

 any apparent decrease of the accumulation. The uniformity of cli- 

 mate on a coast where there is not much rain, must contribute to 

 render the Peruvian guano a more arid manure than the African, as 

 fewer of the saline particles of the former being in solution, they are 

 consequently less subject to evaporation." — Tschudi's Travels in 

 Peru, 239. 



[As there have already appeared in the pages of the ' Phytologist ' 

 certain interesting observations on the subject of guano, we trust the 

 preceding quotation, although not strictly phytological, will be ac- 

 ceptable to our readers. — Ed.^. 



Vernal Appearances at St. Bees, Cumberland. 

 By E. J. R. Hughes, Esq. 



Knowing that any correct observations of natural phenomena are 

 not unacceptable to you in your editorial capacity, T venture to send 

 you the following list of observations made in my rural rambles, prin- 

 VOL. II. 5 K 



